Elementary Schools

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office is considering whether to file criminal charges against the Redondo Beach Police Department after hundreds of potentially hazardous lead bullet fragments from its firing range were found at a nearby elementary school and in the surrounding neighborhood. Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the district attorney, said Monday that prosecutors were "looking at specific criminal violations" and were continuing to review the material.

In the airy computer lab at Romero-Cruz Elementary School in Santa Ana, 11-year-old Davis Nguyen quickly completed math problems. Each correct answer let an animated penguin named JiJi take steps across a bridge. The computer game looked simple, but backers say it is part of an innovative and powerful new way to teach math, and standardized test results released Tuesday appear to back up their claims. Across the state, schools saw a 4.5% increase in the number of elementary students scoring "proficient" or "advanced" in math.

The fatal shooting of an Oxnard middle-school student who told classmates he was gay serves as a sorrowing and urgent reminder that all kids need a safe school environment, free of threat or harassment. That's best taught to children through everyday interactions in the classroom and on the playground, by observant teachers, stern principals and strong school leaders.

In his mind's eye, Bob Reed can see the boys of half a century ago playing dodge ball on the small playground of Precious Blood Catholic School, while the girls play jacks on the periphery. He can see the old push-powered merry-go-round in a corner reserved for first-graders (and third-graders terrorizing them by spinning the contraption too fast).

Psychologists were on hand Wednesday in the Anaheim City School District to counsel children traumatized by an arsonist's early morning torching of their school. Although Palm Lane Elementary had been closed for renovations since June, about 25% of its 828 students -- all of them bused to a nearby campus as the work proceeds -- live in the immediate vicinity of the burned school. "They woke up seeing flames," said Suzi Brown, a district spokeswoman.

Fourth Street Elementary School has a new logo on its letterhead: California Distinguished School. "It meant so much to us. . . . I wanted to put it on there right away," said Principal Marguerite A. Murphy. The honor was announced Wednesday by the California Department of Education, which weighed factors including state and federal test scores and narratives written by school administrators.

When the state Catholic Schools Junior High Academic Decathlon begins today in Chula Vista, a small Mid-City school will be representing the Los Angeles Archdiocese for the third time, having beaten out more than 100 other parochial schools to get there. Cathedral Chapel School represented the archdiocese in the state competition in 2002 and 2005, winning the state title in 2002 and earning a reputation as the tough little school that nobody had heard of.

The boys from Compton practiced all year for this field trip to Beverly Hills. They walked off their charter buses Friday and down the red carpet rolled out for them at Lawry's The Prime Rib. Through the double doors they marveled at the murals and tapestries in the massive dining room. Seven of the George Washington Carver Elementary School students instinctively headed for table 46, once reserved for no less a celebrity than Denzel Washington.

Second-grader Freddie Sotelo stepped forward Thursday in the fight against fat. The 7-year-old from Sylmar clipped a pedometer to his waist and joined 500 other students at Knollwood Elementary School in trying to walk at least 10,000 steps a day. That's what it takes to have an active lifestyle, according to YMCA officials who are staging a nationwide fitness campaign aimed at logging 10 billion steps this week.

Protesters descended Tuesday on Condit Elementary School in Claremont, tersely arguing over the construction-paper pilgrim and Native American costumes worn by kindergartners at a decades-old Thanksgiving tradition. Police were called to the school when tensions rose. Officers also were monitoring Claremont Unified Supt. David Cash's home after he received hate mail and told police that he feared for his safety. "It's been wild," said one woman who worked at the school.